Industrial Engineering Co-op Follows IBM to Philippines

July 31, 2014

Shuntaro Okuzawa, BS, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, 2013—“I was looking at every­thing from indi­vidual processes to entire depart­ments from a bird’s eye view,” said Okuzawa.

“My work is all about looking at the bigger pic­ture, what indi­vidual tasks fit into a day-​​to-​​day oper­a­tion,” Okuzawa said. “You start with a lot of out­dated doc­u­ments and, through a series of focus groups and a lot of study, you start to figure out what people are doing and where they fit into the broader system.”

Okuzawa’s work allowed IBM to iden­tify areas where the busi­ness could improve, cre­ating an oppor­tu­nity to view oper­a­tions on a more macro level than ever before. He cre­ated an online frame­work to track changes and dis­cuss oper­a­tions, iden­ti­fying key points of con­tact for future changes or clarifications.

Academic Success:

At North­eastern, Okuzawa was pres­i­dent of Tau Beta Pi, an honor society that admits the university’s top engi­neering stu­dents with the goal of cre­ating oppor­tu­ni­ties for com­mu­nity ser­vice and pro­fes­sional development. In addition Okuzawa was in the University Honors Program, made Deans List, received a Sears B. Condit and Feretti Scholarship Award and made the Huntington 100 for the 2012-2013 academic year.

Career Success:

In June 2013, the Japan native relocated to Seattle, where he accepted a posi­tion with Amazon.com’s supply-​​chain finance team. His respon­si­bil­i­ties include looking at how the mas­sive online mer­chant can more effi­ciently deliver goods to its cus­tomers around the globe.